It would be hard to find someone who has never heard of Mickey Mouse. With 12 amusement parks in six different locations across the world, Disney is a household name.
In recent months, the company behind those childhood characters has received hefty backlash. Employees and fans of Disney protested the company in March for failing to speak out against Florida’s “Don’t Say Gay” bill and for donating to Florida’s Republican Party at the start of the legislative session in January.
It was a stab at the LGBTQ community, and Disney’s response in March was unapologetic. Bob Chapek, the CEO of the Walt Disney Company, stated that the company supports the LGBTQ community through its “inspiring content.” While Disney does have some diverse content, Pixar employees criticized the company in an open letter for routinely snubbing “overtly gay affection” and LGBTQ representation.
Under the pressure of increasing criticism, the corporation has recently vowed to stop donating to politicians who advocate for discriminative bills and instead donate to groups fighting for the rights of the queer community. Disney also now promises to help repeal the discriminatory Florida bill.
This is not the only ethical problem Disney has faced recently.
In March, Port Neches-Groves High School came to perform at Walt Disney World in Orlando, FL. This Texas high school’s mascot is a Native American man. It’s a tradition for the school’s drill team, the “Indianettes,” to perform in Native American clothing and chant the lyrics “scalp ’em Indians, scalp ’em.” They performed this routine in the middle of the Magic Kingdom park in Disney World.
When videos began circulating social media, Disney released a statement saying that the performance did not match up with the audition tape. However, a representative from the high school said that this was their eigth time performing this routine at Disney World, and they have never had any problems.
Disney should have never let the high school perform at Disney World, even if their performance had nothing to do with Native Americans. Disney should not allow a school with a mascot of a Native American man to have privileges to perform at their amusement parks.
According to CNN, the Cherokee Nation has reached out to the high school numerous times to have their mascot changed, but the school has refused. Disney allowing the school to perform only reinforces harmful racial stereotypes.
It should not be difficult for Disney to avoid these types of ethical failures. The company has plenty of resources to invest in skilled communication and inclusion teams. Still, Disney has failed numerous times to maintain its integrity. How does a corporation so large continue to make such easily avoidable errors?
It is because of the company’s lack of diversity. The top shareholders of Disney are white, cisgender and mostly male. Only 25% of Disney executives are people of color, and only 0.2% of those people are Native Americans. When there’s a lack of representation in a room where decisions are being made, ethical errors are bound to happen. Someone who experiences racism, sexism or homophobia is more likely to recognize it than someone who doesn’t.
There should always be people of different gender identities, sexual orientations and ethnicities present where decisions are made. If Disney executives included a broader range of experiences and identities, the lack of action towards the “Don’t Say Gay” bill and the racist high school performance probably would have never occurred.
Unfortunately, Disney is too large of a company for boycotting or protesting to affect their revenue. While boycotting parks, cruises, or a Disney+ subscription is a step, Disney is one of the largest corporations in the world. It owns many other companies, including Hulu, National Geographic, ABC, ESPN and Fox.
Big corporations should have consequences for their actions, and a simple press release that says “we’re sorry” is not enough. We have allowed mega-corporations like Disney to become so powerful that they are rarely held accountable.
Kacey Buercklin is a 21-year-old political communications major from Murrayville, GA.
